Year-round scholarships help with rising college costs

SALT LAKE CITY — With high inflation, it’s tricky for families with college-bound students to find enough money in their budget to cover the rising costs.

Experts say there’s still time to tap into free money – scholarships!

There’s this myth that scholarships are mostly available in the winter or spring, but experts say you can apply year-round.

So, it’s not too late to get started.

“I really encourage students to apply for about three scholarships a week if they can. I know that’s a lot and that sounds daunting — that’s where parents can come in and be helpful. Help their student find good matches,” said Jennifer Finetti with ScholarshipOwl.

She said there’s $800,000 worth of national scholarships on their platform right now — money available on top of scholarships at schools and universities.

Finetta said students can also use social media to find scholarship money.

“On our platform, we have scholarships that don’t require an essay. All a student has to do is create a social media post and then copy and paste that link to that post into that application,” Finetti said.

The post might be about a particular theme, talking to the camera on video about something that’s meaningful for them or a song, or posting pictures of your pets.

Once your student graduates high school, don’t stop applying for scholarships. Scholarships are often a one-time lump. so if they get it their freshman year, you’ll have to apply again to get more for the subsequent years.

Finetta recommends students really look at the big financial picture of higher education and talk to a financial aid counselor who can break down all the costs.

Consider affordable colleges so that you won’t have to take on a lot of debt to pay for it.